Outfielder Shin-Soo Choo of the Texas Rangers
(Source: Wikimedia Commons and Keith Allison)
At the time of writing this, the worst team in Major League Baseball is not the Chicago Cubs, the Colorado Rockies, nor the Houston Astros (shockingly). No, instead, it is the Texas Rangers, the only team to win 90 games in each of the past four seasons – the same Rangers that Las Vegas had listed as 16 to 1 favorites to win the World Series prior to the start of the 2014 season. Granted, the Red Sox had 12 to 1 odds and are pretty bad themselves, but the Rangers were still expected to compete with the roster they have. Now, at 41-63, Texas is in a tailspin and needs help in every aspect of their game, as the negatives of their style of play far outweigh the positives.
First off, let me say this: Adrian Beltre and Yu Darvish are probably the only two players who are playing at a respectable level. Alex Rios is pretty close in terms of hitting and getting on base with his .300 batting average, but his power that he displayed in Toronto and Chicago is nonexistent these days. Leoyns Martin and Elvis Andrus have handled the speed portion of the Texas offense pretty decently, but both have averages hovering in the .260 range and they lack power, so that can be a liability. Beltre is the lone Ranger with a double digit home run total and, as they have shown thus far, he cannot do it all himself.
Then there is the pitching, their “wonderful” pitching. Darvish is the obvious ace, but that does not help the Rangers’ woes. Darvish leads the team with a 2.92 ERA – a major improvement from his rookie season, although his rookie campaign saw Darvish go 16-9 whereas this season he is a mediocre 9-6. That is nothing compared to the rest of the starters, especially for Colby Lewis, the man who has started the second most games behind Darvish. Lewis was in the news a few weeks ago for openly complaining about a two-out bunt by Colby Rasmus of the Blue Jays when the Jays were up 2-0 and the Rangers playing the shift. That, however, does not seem like a reasonable idea to call out an opponent when Lewis has an ERA of 6.23! The same guy who gave up eleven runs in less than three innings is complaining over a bunt? Come on.
There are other pitchers besides Darvish and Lewis, but they have stats more similar to Lewis than to Darvish. Nick Martinez, Nick Tepesch, Robbie Ross, Martin Perez, Joe Saunders, Scott Baker, Tanner Scheppers, Miles Mirkolas, Matt Harrison, Jerome Williams, and Phil Irwin have all had at least one start for the Rangers. Of those players, only Williams has a low ERA, and that only applies due to him being acquired mid-season from the Astros. The next best ERA is the 4.15 belonging to Harrison, who is out for the rest of the season. The relievers are actually a bit better, though that is not saying much. Neal Cotts and Shawn Tolleson have done admirably with respectable ERAs and Jason Frasor, acquired from the Kansas City Royals, has done his part too. Joakim Soria did his part as the closer, but he is a Detroit Tiger now. The rest is not anything spectacular, though one pitcher should be talked about.
Before I get to the promising Rangers pitcher (that isn’t named Darvish), let me take a second to provide a case study example of where a gifted pitcher can be ruined by his organization. As a Yankees fan, I saw the whole Joba Chamberlain experiment occur before my eyes. A promising reliever with an electrifying repertoire, Joba seemed like the heir to Mariano Rivera back in 2007. The 0.38 ERA and 0.75 WHIP were mind-boggling numbers despite only 24 innings of work. Then, the decision to make Joba a starter happened; the first year was not terrible, but 2009 saw his ERA balloon to 4.75. Joba went back to the bullpen and struggled throughout the season. The 2011 Tommy John surgery furthered his decline; today, he’s a Detroit Tiger trying to get his career back on track.
The whole reason why I bring up the Chamberlain debacle is because I see something like it happening with Tanner Scheppers. He made his debut in 2012 and did not exactly make a major impression. Last year, however, was a different story. Scheppers was the Rangers’ premiere set-up man with a 1.88 ERA and was the perfect complement to closer Joe Nathan, making them one of the best one-two punch relievers in the game. This combo was short-lived as Nathan left for the Tigers and Scheppers was moved to the rotation due to injuries sustained by Darvish, Harrison, and another pitcher, Derek Holland. The notion that this move was a mistake was confirmed when Scheppers hurt his elbow in his fourth start this season and missed a month and a half. He came back in June and was reinserted into the bullpen, but, thanks to his bad elbow, Scheppers is out for the rest of 2014.
However, the biggest problem with the Rangers happened before Spring Training. November 2013 saw Ian Kinsler and his $75 million contract go to (who else) the Tigers in exchange for Prince Fielder, the $214 million man. There was a lot of hope that Fielder would continue to show off his massive power and durability. After all, from 2009 to 2013, Fielder missed a grand total of one lone game. Kinsler, while durable himself, missed 59 games in 2010. What was the worst that could happen? It was a win-win trade, right? Well, at the time of the trade that idea was the consensus. Now, Kinsler is having an All-Star season with Detroit while Fielder had season-ending neck surgery after only 42 games. Now, that $214 million looks much worse for the Rangers moving forward and is probably the top reason behind the Rangers’ struggles. The successor of Kinsler, Jurickson Profar, has not even seen the field and will likely not see it until next season. Kinsler’s non-presence in the lineup is glaringly obvious now with all the struggles that have happened.
Is there hope for the Texas Rangers? Sure, there is, but having it this year might be asking a bit much. Having the Los Angeles Angels and the Oakland Athletics in the same division definitely does not help right now, but there’s always next year… right?
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